Day trip to Milford  


Milford Sound is probably New Zealand's most recognisable tourist destination and a must-do on most visitor's travel itinerary. Busloads stream in each day along the scenic one-way route through the Fiordland Mountains with a singular intention; take a boat trip on the Sound and see the iconic Mitre Peak.

We will be doing the Milford Track in a month's time and will emerge at the Sound, but with 6 metres of rain each year falling on two days out of three, the chances of seeing the Sound in good weather are not high. Having completed the Kepler Track with some spare sunny days, we decided to join the masses and do a day trip to Milford.

Rudyard Kipling called it the eighth wonder of the world. Feel free to join us on this virtual tour as we find out if he was right.

 

The road in


Upper Eglinton Valley

Reflections in Mirror Lake

Lake Gunn

The Darran Mountains

Looking down the Eglinton River

 

The boat trip


Looking up the Eglinton River

Waterfalls cascading hundreds of
metres off the sheer rock faces
near Homer Tunnel

Looking down into the boiling waters
of the Cleddagh Chasm

The iconic Mitre Peak (1683m)

U-shaped Sinbad Valley

162m Bowen Falls and the head of the Sound

The dark profile of The Lion

151m Stirling Falls in a perfect
U-shaped glacial valley

The near-vertical walls of the Sound

Looking around Copper Point to the sheer 700m cliffs of The Overhang


A refreshing shower beneath the
Bridal Veil Falls

Tree avalanche scar - the layer of humus on the steep rocky walls is very shallow and if it dries out too much, a single tree can fall bringing down all those below


....
Young male fur seals chased from the breeding colonies by dominant bulls
often haul out in the Sound


Pounami (greenstone) boulders and flowering rata near Anita Bay. Maori regularly visited the sound to get its prized lighter greenstone

Post office Island at the mouth of the Sound

The Tasman Sea - next stop Australia

Mouth of Milford Sound from the sea

151m Stirling Falls plunging
directly into the sea


The power of the Sunderland Falls

162m Bowen Falls

Harrison Cove and the 2015m Pembroke Glacier (which is sadly shrinking each year)

Fearless backcountry tramper disguised as a tourist

Milford panorama - from Mitre Peak to The Lion and Pembroke Glacier

Not far wrong, Rudyard!